annapolis
valley vines hang
heavy
with grapes
waiting
to freeze
before they
can be
harvested
all this
nor’easter rain
melts
chocolates in pockets
turkey and
plum pudding
picking
crews hang
christmas with family
wish to be
in outside lane
moving slow
with fresh
ice
wine
but weather
is not
cooperating
bottles
empty
too warm
not truly winter
so living
is unsettled
with an eye
to outside
and
anticipated arrival
of a cold snap
for their picking
gainful
employment
24-hours
max
start to finish
wine
pressed onsite
estate bottled
before next
month’s
pruning begins
Joe Blades lives in Fredericton, NB, Canada. He is a visual artist–writer, educator, producer–host of the award-winning, long-playing Ashes, Paper, & Beans community radio program at CHSR 97.9 FM, founding publisher of Broken Jaw Press Inc., and a Past President of the League of Canadian Poets. The editor of ten collections, and the author of seven poetry books, including Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2010), Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books, 2011), and three books in translation, his newest book, Iz knjige koja se ne zatvara, is translated by Tatjana Bijelić into Serbian, co-published by Art Print in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Broken Jaw Press, in Fredericton, NB.
the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan